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PPP. Chapter 44: Stay in your own backyard

Page 1

[CHAPTER 44]
[Page 1]
“Stay In Your Own Back Yard.”
Many “black laws” which were abolished during Reconstruction as a part of an outmoded ante bellum era, reappeared in post-Reconstruction legislation, and were included in subsequent State constitutions. Triumphant Democrats and Conservatives were greatly encouraged in the enactment of such measures by the successful disfranchisement of large Negro majorities and adverse supreme court rulings in regard to their civil rights. In transportation, intermarriage between the races, manhood suffrage, and other phases of civil rights, proscriptions against Negroes became a part of the legal machinery of the State--to be used, so their proposers always argued, for the control and proper policing of people of that race.
It was significant that about this time, in Louisiana and elsewhere, Lynn Eudall’s song, “Stay In Your Own Back Yard,” became one of the favorite renditions of an exaggerated Negro minstrel tradition. It contains the story of the old Negro “Mammy” whose little boy began to weep because he was not allowed to play with the other children of his neighborhood. All confused because the little fellow wanted to play with those who did not seem to desire his companionship, she took him in her lap, asked with motherly impatience: “What d’yuh reckon dey’se gwine tuh do widdah black littul boy lack you?” and while he wept bitterly, gently advised him: “Go out and play jess es much ez yuh please, but stay in yuh own back yard.”

The unpublished manuscript "The Negro in Louisiana" is a work begun by the Dillard (University) Project in 1942, an arm of the WPA's Federal Writer's Project. After the dissolution of the unit, Marcus Christian maintained and edited the document in hopes of eventual publication. It is reproduced here as an annotated transcript, with original typos, chapters, and paginations preserved.

Creator

Dillard Project, Federal Writer's Project

Contributors

Christian, Marcus

Notes

MSS 11

Date

Between 1942 and 1976

Type

Text;

Format

pdf;

Identifier

See 'reference url' on the menu bar for the identifier of this item.

Source

Louisiana and Special Collections Department, Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans

[CHAPTER 44]
[Page 1]
“Stay In Your Own Back Yard.”
Many “black laws” which were abolished during Reconstruction as a part of an outmoded ante bellum era, reappeared in post-Reconstruction legislation, and were included in subsequent State constitutions. Triumphant Democrats and Conservatives were greatly encouraged in the enactment of such measures by the successful disfranchisement of large Negro majorities and adverse supreme court rulings in regard to their civil rights. In transportation, intermarriage between the races, manhood suffrage, and other phases of civil rights, proscriptions against Negroes became a part of the legal machinery of the State--to be used, so their proposers always argued, for the control and proper policing of people of that race.
It was significant that about this time, in Louisiana and elsewhere, Lynn Eudall’s song, “Stay In Your Own Back Yard,” became one of the favorite renditions of an exaggerated Negro minstrel tradition. It contains the story of the old Negro “Mammy” whose little boy began to weep because he was not allowed to play with the other children of his neighborhood. All confused because the little fellow wanted to play with those who did not seem to desire his companionship, she took him in her lap, asked with motherly impatience: “What d’yuh reckon dey’se gwine tuh do widdah black littul boy lack you?” and while he wept bitterly, gently advised him: “Go out and play jess es much ez yuh please, but stay in yuh own back yard.”